The Blogtacular Cale Baird!!!

Choke. Just think about it, seriously. Think about what choking is and imagine speaking while it’s happening. That would fuckin’ hurt, man.

Hiss. Look, it’s just not possible, okay? No matter how “evil” you want your character to seem.

Snarl. Animals snarls. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast snarls. The Hulk snarls. You know who doesn’t snarl? PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE SPEAKING.

Shriek. Come on, 99% of the time, “shriek” is not the word you want.Let’s face it: if you put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, your reader gets the picture. Don’t bring to mind banshees and screaming toddlers.

Hiss is a low, threatening whisper. Raw, guttural, vicious. It is NOT a literal hiss like an animal, it is a tone of voice that serves the same function. Someone will hiss that they’re going to cut your throat- a message from one person to the other.

Snarl is the same kind of thing. Not literal, it’s a tone of voice that serves the same function. It’s raw and gutteral like a hiss, but more savage than vicious. It’s loud, it’s showy, it’s intimidating. It’s very alpha male, big man, look at how fucking dangerous I am. I’ll take ALL of you on. Even if they’re snarling at one person in particular, nobody better back them up or they’re gonna get fucked up too.

Shriek. Come on, seriously? We’ve all heard people shriek either in fear or outrage. High pitched, loud, out of control, feminine. Men can shriek, but it’s funny and emasculating. Think angry italian women throwing pots and pans or ladies on tables who just saw a mouse.

Get real fucking swole. Think about it. If your character is busy getting real fucking swole - I’m talking Hugh Jackmanned, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnsoned, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia-ed - then they won’t be speaking, because they will be at the gym, and it’s bad form to put others off their reps

Morass. I know. You went on thesaurus.com, because you’re only mortal, and you wanted another word for ‘snarl’, because your character has already snarled four times by page 3. ‘Morass’ was the first word that thesaurus.com presented to you as an alternative, and you thought it looked cool and kind of pirate-y, probably on account of the fact that it looks a bit like ‘cutlass’. But wait! ‘Morass’ is a synonym of the noun ‘snarl,’ as in ‘a bit of a pickle’, as in ‘a spot of bother,’ as in ‘a soupçon of embuggerment’. Your character isn’t morassing. Your entire story is a morass. It couldn’t be more ass if you tried

Trumpet. Elephants trumpet. Miles Davis trumpets. Sometimes, after too many lentils, your bottom might give it a go. You know who doesn’t trumpet? Literally anyone else, ever, in any context, especially from the human throat in pursuit of speech

Shrek. I mean, you could give it a go, but honestly, if your character is going to be doing Shrek, then they should probably be paying him more attention. It’s the least he deserves, after all he’s been through, and open, honest communication with your partner should always be encouraged in an intimate setting, even (and perhaps especially) if your partner is an ogre with serious trust issues

Channel the spirit of the last native Welsh prince. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’m really, really sick of seeing this in every single book I read. Literally every few pages, it’s just ’“Hello there,” said John, somehow speaking in the voice of Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf,’ or ‘Ellen stopped speaking, and then, without warning, her vocal chords shifted, making space for the tortured spirit of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and her entire body erupted in a harrowing, howling cacophany, all the pain and ruin of his slaughtered nation astringent as blood on her tongue’. It’s such a tired cliche, guys. It’s so fucking trite. Get a new metaphor, for God’s sake. Real people don’t just channel dead Welsh princes! It’s not a thing that we do in actual life! So why does literally everyone do it in books? It’s just lazy writing

This checklist can be used during both planning and editing stages.

Your Protagonist

Does your protagonist have a personality beyond being heroic and nice?

Does your protagonist have agency?

Does your protagonist’s personality change?

Did your protagonist have a life and relationships before the events of the story?

Does your protagonist have flaws?

Is your protagonist active as opposed to passive or reactive?

Your Setting

Is your setting described well enough that readers can imagine themselves there?

Is your setting used or described differently than similar settings by other authors?

Do readers have a sense that your world extends outside the events of your story?

Does your setting have its own unique atmosphere aside from being a backdrop for your plot?

Is it important that the events in your story take place in this setting and not another?

Your Romantic Subplot/Plot (if applicable)

Does the relationship have flaws?

Does the relationship take time to develop?

Does the love interest have their own personality beyond their romantic traits?

Does the love interest have agency both inside and outside the relationship?

Does the love interest have flaws?

Your Major Non-Protagonist Characters

Do your major characters have varying opinions on your protagonist?

Do your major characters have traits outside of their relationships with the protagonist?

Do your major characters have varying gender identities, races, ability statuses, and sexual orientations, unless there is a good plot reason otherwise (such as the story taking place mainly at a male prison or a gay bar)?

Do your major characters have different worldviews and senses of morality?

Do most of your major characters have agency?

Do your major characters have flaws?

Do all of your major characters need to be there?

Do most of your major characters’ personalities change?

Your Minor and Background Characters

Do most of your minor characters have something that makes them interesting and memorable?

Do your minor characters have varying gender identities, races, ability statuses, and sexual orientations, unless there is a good plot reason otherwise (such as the story taking place mainly at a male prison or a gay bar)?

Do all of your minor characters need to be there?

Your Antagonist

Does your antagonist have a reasonable motive for their actions?

Does your antagonist have agency?

Has your antagonist done enough to be taken seriously?

Does your antagonist have good traits?

Does your antagonist have traits outside of their relationship with the protagonist?

Your Plot

Do your scenes flow logically?

Are all of your questions either answered or left unanswered for a reason?

Are there too many coincidences?

Does your plot begin at the perfect spot?

Does your plot end at the perfect spot?

Is there conflict?

Are there any scenes that could be left out?

Does your plot happen because of the actions, reactions, and decisions of your characters?

Your Mechanics

Are there any spelling or grammatical errors?

Are there any sentences that could be left out?

Are most of your sentences active instead of passive?

Do you use mostly strong verbs (ex: drank, ran) instead of weak verbs (ex: was, did)?

Do you use too many adverbs?

THIS SHIT WORKS OKAY, I AM DEAD SERIOUS.

The last time I saw this on my dash, I didn’t think it would happen, so jokingly I wished I could go to a fun. concert.

AND GUESS WHAT, I WENT TO A FUCKING FUN. CONCERT.

I SAW THIS ON MY DASH THE OTHER DAY AND THOUGHT “ITS WORTH A TRY” SO I WISHED I COULD GET A 3DS

LITERALLY LIKE 4 DAYS LATER MY DAD SENT ME A PICTURE OF THE 3DS XL HE BOUGHT FOR ME WHILE I WAS AT SCHOOL

GUYS.

HE FUCKING CALLED ME 20 MINUTES LATER

20 FUCKNG. MINUTES. LATER.

February 1, 2022

I’m so so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this

WHAT IS THE EARN IT ACT?

The EARN IT Act has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country. This is a bill that will make children less safe, undermine online safety and security, and trample free expression, because it carves out another exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which the ACLU describes as “foundational to modern online communications.” This has been the law that has let the internet grow into what it is today, we’ve had this law since the 90s. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of this law because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)

The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship. Platforms will be incentivized to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSEM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.

If this bill passes, we're going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms, for fear of the liability that could come with ever accidentally hosting CSAM, as well as the erasure of end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms.

This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal's EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230.

EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please, (Right now, right wing organizers are catgorizing books about racism as ‘porn’ to ban them from schools) which is a cherished goal of organizations that seek to reintroduce obscenity prosecutions for content now protected by Free Speech jurisprudence. This will 1000000% be used to eradicate anything LGBT online.

What this bill says it does on the surface is make platforms liable for their users’ activity if that activity involves sex and minors. However, because of 230, platforms are not liable at all about their users' activity. This has allowed platforms to grow and thrive and many niches online to as well. The bill also creates an unelected commission to create “best practices” to combat online child sexual exploitation. While these recommendations are nominally voluntary (so Americans have no decision on who gets to be on it), platforms that refuse to comply will be liable for criminal prosecutions and lawsuits should the government decide any of their users is engaging in online child sexual exploitation.

This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.

This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.

Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of "protecting kids" to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids.

The entire EARN IT act is based on *multiple* misunderstandings of the law and reality. It's a really really really bad policy that will do serious harm. But because Senator Blumenthal wants headlines, he'll pretend that it "helps protect the children." It won't. It'll do real damage. It will make CSEM much much worse.

One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works -- without fear of liability for any "failure." Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.

(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on "obscenity" as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)

NCOSE, the far right anti-LGBT hate group behind the global anti-sex legislations, is pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.

The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill?

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) along with a coalition of 26 civil society organizations urged the United States Senate to reject the EARN IT Act. Groups on the left and right, including the ACLU, Fight for the Future, EFF, and Hacking // Hustling oppose it. Because it threatens free expression online and will threaten marginalized people’s safety while being totally unnecessary and failing to fix the problem it claims to address. The EARN IT Act empowers states to give law enforcement access to users’ private conversations and force companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement. This is totally unnecessary. Platforms are already handing over CSAM to the federal government. It’s actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.

I don't know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the "make child pornography worse" bill, but here we are.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

EARN IT Act was introduced yesterday! And it’s already scheduled to get marked up, which is the first step post-introduction. Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. IF YOU LIVE IN THESE STATES (IL, VT, CA, RI, MN, DE, CT, HI, NJ, and GA), CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND HOUSE MEMBERS NOW. THIS IS URGENT. This is who gets first crack, and folks in all have Senators who are on the Judiciary committee.

I'm guessing this month or March is when the bill would be passed if there is no opposition 😭 The bill was re-introduced yesterday, already set for markup this Thursday. This feels like an attempt to fast track it this month. Additionally the current makeup of Congress favors those who want it passed. Back in 2020 it was mostly Senate republicans and democrats who are basically republicans (just like now, check the sponsors) pushing it with Ron Wyden using the filibuster to stop their efforts. The house dems didn't want to give Trump a win and needed to appear as pro-privacy/free speech for the 2020 election. Now the dems have the presidency, both chambers of Congress and if you've noticed have spent a few years repeatedly demanding social media censorship and desperately want to give Biden victories. biden isn't like obama who opposed sopa/pipa to appeal to younger voters. This is similar to how FOSTA passed with the group who made it happen last time back again. Far as I'm aware Wyden hasn't spoken about new earn it yet but even if he does oppose it, it's very possible there will be enough Senate democrats to join the republicans in passing it beating a filibuster. Then pelosi's band of house idiots pass it and we have to choose between breaking the law because they can't stop us from using encryption or being obedient sheep to a group who consider themselves above laws.

It already has a fifth of the Senate cosponsoring it. There is a very very very real chance this bill becomes law. This is an uphill battle that's going to happen fast and quick. PLEASE, FIGHT NOW.

202-224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline.

This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.

More sources to read about this bill:

https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/the-earn-it-act-is-anti-evidence

Fight for the Future’s Statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678EW8v09z8&t=1s

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220131/22423648395/senates-new-earn-it-bill-will-make-child-exploitation-problem-worse-not-better-still-attacks-encryption.shtml

EARN IT Act treats Myths as Facts.

https://surviveearnit.com/what-is-the-earn-it-act/ From 2020, but little has changed about the bill.

https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/earn-it-act-back

Center for Democracy and Technology’s Statement

DISCORD LINK IF YOU WANT TO HELP FIGHT IT

‼️URGENT‼️

I'm a severely mentally ill trans woman in urgent need of psychological assistance. I will not get this assistance until my immigration status is regularised, and in order to do that I need to demonstrate income for the months of February, March, and April.

12/600€

likes do nothing reblogs cast

ko-fi/paypal

patreon

i've edited it to contain them

ko-fi/paypal

how dare u leave this in the tags

**URGENT: PLEASE READ/SIGNAL BOOST**

Tuesday, November 30th: Hi everyone, I’m Gemma, a bi, mentally ill disaster, who is in desperate need of help as I'm struggling to pay my rent, and I don't receive my welfare until just after Christmas.

As most of you are already aware from my previous posts, I have been struggling financially these past few months due to my welfare benefit (Universal Credit) being under a review, which is due to my worsening mental health and the UK’s controversial changes to how benefits are assessed and assigned. And at the moment, I'm currently struggling to get by, as my application for Disability (PIP) was declined and due to Covid, I have been waiting almost a year for an appointment for a WCA (Work Capability Asessment) from the DWP to assess my mental and physical health, and due to this, my debt from overdue bills is piling up.

I know this is a huge ask, and I'm completely heartbroken to be asking for help again, but I still urgently need some as I don't receive my welfare until after Christmas (December 27th) and I desperately need to pay my utilities and get groceries for Christmas. My rent is £300 + utilities/bills - £200.

Additionally I have a CHRISTMAS WISHLIST, some items are just silly wishes, but some stuff like dog food and blankets are essential for the winter, and I would appreciate it if anyone could have a look. Otherwise, my goal to get through Christmas and New Year is now £500-£600!! (please don't recommend reddit as I'm already trying there)

If anyone could spare any amount to help me, even if it’s just £1/$1/€1, it would literally save my life, and sharing definitely helps just as much as donations. Nobody is obligated in any way to donate or buy anything from my wishlist if they can’t or don’t want to, I know we’re all struggling right now.

£15/£500!!

If you are neurodivergent reblog this post

If you are lgbtqia+ like this post